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U.S. General Services Administration is going Google | Official Google Blog

December 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) today announced its decision to move 17,000 employees and contractors to Google Apps for Government. GSA oversees the business of the U.S. federal government, providing real estate and building management services as well as acquisition and procurement assistance to other federal agencies.

GSA’s decision to switch to Google Apps resulted from a competitive request for proposal (RFP) process that took place over the past six months, during which the agency evaluated multiple proposals for replacing their existing on-premises email system. GSA selected Google partner Unisys as the prime contractor to migrate all employees in 17 locations around the world to an integrated, flexible and robust email and collaboration service in 2011.

By making this switch, GSA will benefit in a number of ways. Modern email and collaboration tools will help make employees more efficient and effective. Google Apps will bring GSA a continual stream of new and innovative features, helping the agency keep pace with advances in technology in the years ahead. And taxpayers will benefit too—by reducing the burden of in-house maintenance and eliminating the need to replace hardware to host its email systems, GSA expects to lower costs by 50 percent over the next five years.

Earlier this year, Google Apps became the first suite of cloud computing email and collaboration applications to receive Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification, enabling agencies to compare the security features of Google Apps to that of existing systems.

via Official Google Blog: U.S. General Services Administration is going Google.

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Wi-Fi, HomePlug Alliances Collaborate On Smart Grid Apps — InformationWeek

November 3, 2010 By Leave a Comment

The Wi-Fi Alliance and the HomePlug Powerline Alliance have teamed up to promote their respective technologies in smart grid applications, the pair announced Tuesday.

An agreement between the organizations calls for them to review their specifications and standards that facilitate interoperability of smart grid apps while jointly researching the promotion of their technologies for smart grids.

The two take part in the Smart Grid Interoperability Panel Forum and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST); both organizations seek to accelerate and harmonize standards development for the smart grid. The U.S. Department of Energy and NIST have developed initial specifications for smart energy management of home area network devices. “Both Wi-Fi and HomePlug solutions will play key roles in energy management and connecting home systems and appliances to the smart grid,” Rob Ranck, president of the HomePlug Powerline Alliance, said in a statement. “HomePlug and Wi-Fi devices represent a large share of installed nodes worldwide, and ensuring seamless interoperability is critical for broad-scale smart grid deployment.”

via Wi-Fi, HomePlug Alliances Collaborate On Smart Grid Apps — InformationWeek.

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Official Google Enterprise Blog: Bring Your Phone to Work Day: Managing Android Devices With Google Apps

November 1, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Today in Tokyo, more than 600 IT leaders from across Japan are coming together with Google and 18 of our partners at Google Enterprise Day. It’s our annual event dedicated to discussing trends in enterprise technology and how businesses can use cloud technologies to increase productivity and innovate more quickly. This year, one of the hottest topics is mobile computing and how companies can allow employees to use their personal phones and tablets at work without compromising corporate security.

With over 200,000 devices activated each day, Android is seeing rapid adoption, and today we are launching new administrative controls that make it possible to securely manage these devices in the Google Apps environment. With this launch, Google Apps provides secure management and sync capabilities for all major mobile platforms. You can manage most mobile devices right from the browser, without having to deploy dedicated servers.

Many Android devices feature tight integration with Google Apps, including native applications for Gmail, Google Talk, and Google Calendar, as well as mobile access to Google Docs. Now any employee with an Android device running version 2.2 – personal or company-issued – can access their corporate information while allowing administrators to enforce data security policies such as:

Remotely wipe all data from lost or stolen mobile devices

Lock idle devices after a period of inactivity

Require a device password on each phone

Set minimum lengths for more secure passwords

Require passwords to include letters and numbers

When the employee leaves the company, the administrator can withdraw access to corporate info, which allows the employee to continue to use their device if it’s their own.

via Official Google Enterprise Blog: Bring Your Phone to Work Day: Managing Android Devices With Google Apps.

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Microsoft | Microsoft launches services to compete with Google Apps | Seattle Times Newspaper

October 19, 2010 By Leave a Comment

In another step onto Google’s turf, Microsoft launched Office 365, a Web-based version of Office and e-mail rolled into a monthly service for less than the cost of a Netflix subscription.

The new Office 365 is the answer to Google Apps, a Web version of word processing and spreadsheets that Google offers to businesses for $50 per year. Microsoft’s new basic service will cost $72 a year. Microsoft said people can start signing up for a free test version, and the service will start selling next year.

“Customers will get the best of everything we know about productivity 365 days a year,” said Kurt DelBene, the new president of Microsoft’s Business division, at a Tuesday news conference in San Francisco.

It’s one of the many ways Microsoft is pushing into cloud computing: selling software served from and stored in the company’s giant data centers.

“We believe it’s one of the most impactful transformations that will happen in our generation,” DelBene said of the cloud.

For businesses with fewer than 25 employees, Microsoft is offering the $6 monthly service that combines Office Web Apps — Word, Excel, PowerPoint — with SharePoint for collaboration, Exchange for e-mail and Lync for communications.

For larger businesses, Microsoft can offer a combination of services for $2 to $27 per user, so that companies can scale the package software for different types of employees, whether they’re factory workers or accountants.

via Microsoft | Microsoft launches services to compete with Google Apps | Seattle Times Newspaper.

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Facebook Quick Tip: Control Apps Access To Your Data – Computerworld

October 9, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Facebook knows you want more control over your information. That’s why it announced this week a new dashboard under your privacy settings that gives you visibility into how applications-think games, productivity apps and business tools-use your data.

The new dashboard, called “Applications You Use,” gives you a detailed overview of the permissions that you’ve granted to these apps. Within the dashboard, you can view which applications you’re using, control what information the apps can access and remove applications that you no longer want.

How to find it: Under “Account” choose “Privacy Settings” then click “Edit your settings” under Applications and Websites at the bottom. Then, next to “Applications you use” choose Edit Settings. Here, you can see which applications you’ve authorized to interact with your account and when you authorized them to do so.

via Facebook Quick Tip: Control Apps Access To Your Data – Computerworld.

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Google Docs Gets Mobile Editing for Android, iPad – Messaging and Collaboration from eWeek

September 21, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard said mobile editing capabilities are coming for Google Docs on Google Android and Apple iPad devices.

Google in the coming weeks will unveil mobile editing functionality for Google Docs running on Google’s Android and Apple’s iPad.

Google Enterprise President Dave Girouard, who noted that Google Apps now has 3 million business customers, said his team demonstrated the tools at the Google Atmosphere cloud computing event in Paris Sept. 20.

Girouard, tasked with leading the company’s cloud collaboration efforts versus Microsoft, IBM and a litany of other players, wrote:

“In the next few weeks, co-workers around the world will soon be able to co-edit files simultaneously from an even wider array of devices.”

Google declined to provide more specific information for eWEEK on this functionality.

via Google Docs Gets Mobile Editing for Android, iPad – Messaging and Collaboration from eWeek.

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Google Adds Two-factor Authentication Option to Google Apps – PCWorld Business Center

September 20, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Google added a two-factor authentication option to Google Apps on Monday, allowing enterprises to protect user accounts with a one-time code delivered through a mobile phone, in addition to the usual password.

The option will provide additional protection against phishing and malware attacks, as the one-time codes are valid for a limited period, said Eran Feigenbaum, director of security for Google Apps.

Two-factor authentication typically relies on something the user knows, such as a password, and something they have, such as a smartcard, security token or — in Google’s case — a mobile phone.

Microsoft offers a similar two-factor authentication service using SMS text messages, which it first announced in May.

Google will send out authentication codes by SMS (Short Message Service) or voice message. The SMS service will be free and available in 19 countries including Australia, Denmark, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden, the U.K. and the U.S.

via Google Adds Two-factor Authentication Option to Google Apps – PCWorld Business Center.

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Google Apps Fitted With Government Controls — InformationWeek

July 27, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Catering to a growing need among cost-constrained government agencies for cloud computing that’s both affordable and secure, Google on Monday introduced a new version of Google Apps for federal, state, and local government agencies in the U.S.

Google Apps for Government offers the same suite of online applications as Google Apps Premiere Edition, with Federal Information Security Management Act (FISMA) certification and support for government-mandated policy and security measures.

Google claims that Google Apps for Government is the first multi-tenant cloud computing suite to receive certification under FISMA, which sets guidelines for responsible information security management in U.S. government information systems.

via Google Apps Fitted With Government Controls — InformationWeek.

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Take a test drive into the cloud | Official Google Blog:

June 2, 2010 By Leave a Comment

We’ve talked about the power of cloud computing and how millions of businesses have already gone Google by switching to Apps. But sometimes it’s hard to imagine what working in the cloud would really mean, and frequently, people ask us how they can better understand the benefits of Google Apps specifically for their business. How would online collaboration really affect your workplace? And how could increased email storage or integrated IM and video chat actually impact your company’s productivity?

To answer some of these questions, we’ve created the Go Google cloud calculator to let you take a test drive into the cloud. Whether your company is big or small, brand new or been around for a while, this tool will give you a sense of the benefits of going Google in an easy-to-understand way. Here’s a quick demo:

Once you take a spin and learn about the potential cost and time savings, the tool will create a custom URL, presentation PDF, spreadsheet or even a poster that you can share with other decision makers within your business as you discuss going Google.

via Official Google Blog: Take a test drive into the cloud.

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Google Buys Maker Of Microsoft Office Plugin — InformationWeek

March 8, 2010 By Leave a Comment

Google does not own Microsoft Office, but it appears to be investing in it nonetheless: The company on Friday said that it had acquired DocVerse, a start-up founded in 2007 by two ex-Microsoft engineers.

The terms of the deal were not disclosed, though The Wall Street Journal reports that Google is paying about $25 million.

DocVerse makes plugin software that enables cloud-based collaboration in Microsoft Office applications Word, PowerPoint, and Excel. It gives Office users something similar to the collaborative functionality of Google Apps in what for many remains a more familiar, more comfortable environment.

Yet Jonathan Rochelle, group product manager on the Google Apps team, suggests all is not as it seems: Google isn’t buying into Microsoft; rather it’s buying a bridge from Microsoft Office to the world of cloud computing. There are, after all, some 600 million Office users out there, according to DocVerse, and getting them to migrate to Google Apps won’t happen overnight.

“We definitely see this as an investment in the cloud, not an investment in the desktop,” said Rochelle in a phone interview. “For us, because we’re allowing people to collaborate using formats they’re familiar with — spreadsheets and documents and presentations — we’ve definitely found a new pain point: People are saying, ‘Help us get to the cloud.’ So really for us, DocVerse is not an investment in the desktop. It’s an investment to help people who are stuck on the desktop, who are using older tools and more traditional ways to create content.”

Google has been building escape routes for a while. Last summer, for example, the company introduced Google Apps Sync for Microsoft Outlook, which allows Outlook users to connect to Google Apps for e-mail, contacts, and calendar data. It turns Outlook into what amounts to a skin, or user-interface, for Google’s cloud.

via Google Buys Maker Of Microsoft Office Plugin — InformationWeek.

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